


Towels and Talons

by ninalanfer



Series: The Adventures of Sola Merkasia [1]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-14
Updated: 2014-10-06
Packaged: 2018-02-08 19:57:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 21,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1954263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ninalanfer/pseuds/ninalanfer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a story about a man named Konstantin Judd and his travels across the galaxy as a journalist and writer for the ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’. He find himself, in hunt for useful information, on the backwater station of Omega where he meets a very interesting turian woman that can give him all the answers he would ever want and more. How lucky huh? Or is it? Set pre-ME1. Masskink fill. Oneshot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Turian Woman

**Author's Note:**

> Original Prompt: http://masseffectkink.livejournal.com/8276.html?thread=40137300#t40137300
> 
> "There's an overabundance of Garrus\F!Shep and derivative stories, but I've found only three F!Turian\M!Human fills on the internet.
> 
> Could be First Contact War, Reaper War or whatever.
> 
> Smut, fluff, plot and continuity."

Konstantin Judd was no coward. At least he didn't see himself as such. There was a difference between being a coward and what he now was, running for his life through Omega's cramped back alleys. The military would have called it a tactical retreat, he was okay with that. Not that he couldn't hold his own in a fight. He could, put a gun in his hand and he would not let you down, he even had the scars to prove it. But alone, on unknown territory, against a whole squad of trained mercenaries... there were better odds after all.

He had come to the seedy backwater station of Omega to learn about it, the life people led here and what place the mined out asteroid had in the bigger scheme of things in the galaxy. But not because he was just curious, on some personal quest for personal knowledge. No, he was a journalist, a field researcher for the esteemed and wholly amazing book _A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy_. The article on Omega was, he had noticed, poorly lacking and he had set out to rectify this.

That was why he had come to this god forsaken rock. That was how he had, on his second day on the station, stumbled across a meeting of sorts he was apparently not welcome too. That was why he now found himself running as fast as his legs could carry him away from the men with guns and a will to litter his body with holes. Konstantin Judd felt he had enough holes already, thank you very much, and he would pass on the offer.

When he rounded a corner with no illusions that his pursuers wouldn't be there in a second, his innards froze in panic. He didn't know the area and somehow he now found his escape route cut off in a large storage room and he couldn't see an exit door anywhere. With a sinking heart that was beating rapidly in his chest he dove behind a couple of crates in a desperate attempt to hide from the approaching death. Would it hurt, he wondered, to die? He didn't know what would come, if there was an afterlife or just being swallowed into the nothingness. The _Guide_ didn't cover the life after death, as it tried to remain religiously unbound and he didn't really have any own deities to pray to.

Hard boots clanked on the metal floor as the squadron of mercenaries entered the room only seconds after him.

“Spread out,” he heard the order barked from one of them. He had seemed to be their leader, had seemed to lead that clandestine meeting that would most likely seal this hitchhiker's fate today. “Hey, boy! We know you're in here! Why don't you just show yourself to spare everyone's time?”

No, no, he would sit here if anyone didn't mind. Konstantin didn't feel like revealing his position at all.

He could hear footsteps closing in on his position, the faint clinking of armor as the soldier moved and a shadow had started to loom over the crate's top. So this was it huh? That merc would soon come around the corner and spot him and his days would be over. Konstantin felt his palms sweat up and a slight white buzz was starting to spread in his ears. Was he about to faint?

Suddenly the room fell in total darkness. A second later a scream in pain sounded from one of the soldiers.

“What was that?” someone said.

“Mike? You still there?” someone else asked.

The answering silence pressed against them.

A curse from one of his comrades filled it before a sharp snap echoed through the room. The sound of a body hitting the floor sent the rest of the mercs into a panic.

In the chaotic firefight that followed he caught glimpses of something white weaving through the men. Short flashes of light from the energy weapons lighting up blurred, fast moving contours. Konstantin's mind forced him to remember all the ghost stories he heard growing up. Myths of avenging spirits coming back from the dead. He tucked himself hard against the crate he was hiding behind and listens as the men who was about to kill him fell one by one from this unknown enemy.

It isn't until the light turned on again he dared to peak above the edge. The commander of the group is standing by one of the panels, apparently having just managed to get the lights working again. But it is too late, the white figure was already standing in front of him.

Konstantin blinked in surprise. It was a turian woman, with pale, almost white, skin and greyish blue scales. Two black strips of paint ran down her face, crossing her eyes and disappearing in under the collar covering her neck. Aside from an omni-blade glowing in her right hand he saw no weapons on her. It made him shiver, looking over the floor where the still bodies of the soldiers lay. How had she killed them all?

The female turian tucked her blade under the their leaders chin and leveled him with a cold stare.

“Merkasia says hello,” she said before the blade made it's way up into his skull. A spasm went through his body and it went limp and slid lifeless down from the console.

A breath he hadn't been aware he was holding slipped out and made his chest relax again. He heaved himself up with the help of the crate, unsure if his shaking legs would hold him or not.

“Thanks,” he said. “You just saved my life.” He couldn't believe it.

The next moment he wished he hadn't spoken. Dark, cold eyes snapped to his direction, making him tense up again. There was no kindness in them. No relief in seeing him alive. With a threatening stance she started to walk towards him.

"I'm not with those other people," he blurted with dim hopes of maybe be able to get out of this alive shrinking with each step she took. He matched it, backing away from her.

"I don't care," the pale turian said without breaking stride. "You've seen my face, you are a liability."

His retreat was cut short, a wall appearing behind his back. Crap. His eyes darted in every direction in search for an escape route, but then she crowded him and he felt the tip of her omni-blade playing just under his chin. He tried his best to not think of the mercenary commander that lay, still warm, just a few meters away.

"Give me one reason not to kill you," she said in that same vibrating, plain voice.

Had Konstantin been a turian, or any other race with a wider hearing range, he would have been able to hear the hint of pleading in the woman's voice. As it was, he didn't and it didn't help his body from reacting on it's own accord. Her lean long legs and chest were warm against his own and she was so close he could feel her breath on his cheeks. Fear prickled his skin, the show she just put on still fresh in his mind. This woman was powerful and she knew it. Confidence radiated from her like an aura.

Fear turned to excitement. The same kind that he had felt while running for his life earlier. Adrenalin being pumped out throughout his veins. But there was something in the scent of her... Konstantin felt his cheek heat up as tension started pooling in his gut.

Something shifted in her cold eyes and she leaned in and lowered her nose centimeters from his neck. He hardly dared to breathe when she inhaled deeply, a soft oscillating thrum starting in her chest.

“Good enough,” she breathed next to his ear and ran a talon down his exposed neck. He couldn't help but notice how sharp they were. Did she file them that way? God help him if the sensation and the danger of how even her bare hands would be able to shred him to pieces didn't turn him on in the worst way. There must be something wrong with him. Her voice was a low purr when she continued. “Have you ever been with a turian woman?” A wet, soft tongue darted out to taste his exposed skin and he squirmed where he stood, pressed between a hard cold wall and a warm, nice, female body.

“No,” he forced out of a constricted throat.

She pulled back slightly and looked at him.

“Would you want to?” she offered, searching for consent in his eyes.

He almost laughed out loud in shock. She could kill without blinking an eye in cold blood but here she drew the line? Interesting.

“Yes,” he answered.

She took a step back and half turned from him.

“Then come with me.”

She led him back through the storage room, up a ladder, down a catwalk and when they exited the building Konstantin almost backed inside again. The turian woman was walking casually along a small ledge, a wall on one side and a belly gripping drop on the other, without a railing or anything to keep you safe. She didn't turn to look at him when he stopped, but he got the feeling that she knew he hesitated.

The ledge led around the building, across a street over to a lower building on the opposite side. There she made him go first down another ladder and when they reached ground level again she knelt beside a dumpster. This was one of the weirdest paths he had ever taken. Why couldn't they just have walked out the door and around the house to this most important of all garbage disposals? Wouldn't that have been a bit less life threatening?

He was just about to ask what she was up to when a panel clicked and opened like small door behind the container. Still kneeling, she stepped aside and motioned for him to get in. Konstantin hunched down to look inside. It was pitch black. He looked over at the woman with a glance that asked if she was completely crazy. Maybe she couldn't read human expressions or she didn't care, she just urged him on. The same cold edge in her eyes as before started to creep back in and Konstantin pressed down a shiver. She had wanted to kill him after all. He was under no illusion she would go through with her threat if he didn't go along with this.

So he pressed on. Got down on his knees and his eyes opened as wide as they could to see anything in the looming darkness. Here and there he saw a few fluctuations, weak light bouncing off the walls and he felt metal under his hands.

They had only crawled through the tight space for a minute or two when the darkness started to fade however, if only slightly, and he heard her move behind him.

“You can stand up,” she said and as he did he felt her pass him.

They had come out in a small passage of sorts. It wasn't wide enough to stretch your arms and the ceiling was almost brushing his hair back when they walked.

“What is this place?” he wondered.

“Forgotten service tunnels,” she answered.

Just then a pair of clear big eyes popped up from a dark shadow just at his right elbow. A pale human child's face was soon to follow. He felt his heart race and he hurried his steps to walk close to his mysterious guide. A small laugh escaped her and she threw a glance behind her at the kid.

“Well... almost forgotten anyway,” she said, her mandibles splaying out in a grin. “Homeless kids use them for shelter as not many grown ups can get in through the vents, so it's relatively safe.”

He nodded. He knew Omega well enough from reputation to believe that the children needed someplace safe to stay.

They turned around so many corners Konstantin almost thought them to be lost, but the woman seemed sure in her steps. Soon she instructed him to crawl into another small duct and when he reached the end they emerged out into a back alley. He stretched his limbs tentatively as he watched her climb out after him. He wasn't used to cramped up places as the one they had just left and it didn't exactly make him feel at ease.

“Hey madam,” a child's voice came from deeper in the alley. A boy of around ten came towards them. His clothes, ill torn and dirty, sat loosely on his tin body. But by the look in his face you could never have guessed he lived a harsh life on the streets. Konstantin saw courage there, courage and seasoning well beyond his years. It hurt his heart a little to look and he wished they didn't have to live here. Didn't have to grow up as fast as they did. That they could have had a mother and a father who cared for them on some green planet somewhere.

“Hey kid,” the turian woman said back to him when he neared.

“You want some, madam?” he asked, rummaging in one pocket and pulling out a small package.

“What you got for me today?” she asked and Konstantin got the feeling these two knew each other from before.

The kid didn't answer, just handed her the package which she opened and pulled out something that looked a little like a cigarette. But when she lifted it towards her nose and sniffed it he could tell it wasn't your usual kind of tobacco in there. Konstantin wasn't used to drugs, he wasn't the type to ride the highs or explore the waves. This was the first time he actually saw any of it and it made him ill at ease. Sure they weren't in citadel space, but still... He was sure that could ruin anybody's life.

They had started haggling. This he was used to however, and he could tell the woman had the upper hand. When he thought she was going to keep pushing she relented, handed him a few credit chips and put the small package in the inside pocket of her west.

“Always a pleasure doin' business with you, madam,” the boy said as he nodded and walked off.

“See you around, kid,” she answered and turned, started walking out to the street like nothing out of the ordinary had just taken place. Maybe for her, it hadn't.

Konstantin hurried on to catch up with her and took his strides next to her when he did.

“You an addict?” he felt emboldened enough to ask, although with a lower voice than normal. The whole idea of drugs and how they could destroy someone made him feel angry inside.

She didn't seem to take offense though as she smirked in his direction.

“Spirits, no,” she said. “I never touch the stuff.”

He was thrown. She had just bought a whole package of 'the stuff' hadn't she?

“Then why...?” he started but didn't know how to finish the sentence.

She just shrugged.

“I'm no good samaritan or anything.” She kept her eyes forward as she led him down the street and around a corner. “But I grew up here on the station. That was me not long ago and I know what happens when you're not able to fill your quota for the week. I'd rather his boss didn't have a reason to come down on him, it's never pretty. So I buy some now and again, sell it onwards, get a better price. The way I see it, we both win.” Her voice told him loud and clear not to ask anything else or comment.

Konstantin tried not to blink, to gape. That was the last thing he had expected to hear. Did this cold blooded killer have a heart? He peeked at her from the corner of his eye as they walked. She just kept getting more and more interesting.

They soon reached an apartment building. Four stories up and five doors in, left them at, apparently, her home. It was small, two rooms and a kitchen and it didn't match the owner. The turian woman had given the impression of professionalism. The way she carried herself spoke of order and strict discipline under the relaxed exterior. Her gear was obviously, if not military grade, of fine quality. It didn't sit well with the messy place Konstantin now entered. The appartment wasn't perhaps dirty per se. But the items in it was littered all over the different surfaces. In the sofa there were clothes and blankets strewn. The coffee table had data pads and magazines, a few dishes, in a jumble. In the corner a crate stood wide open, random items thrown in without care.

“You live here?” he couldn't help but ask.

The woman had made her way over to the small kitchen, she paused and looked around.

“For now,” she said and returned without any remorse at him seeing the disarray. She opened the fridge and grabbed two bottles. “I move around a lot. Take a seat.” She nodded over at the sofa as she turned to face him again.

Konstantin moved a few pieces of clothes out of the way before he sat down. She joined him in the other corner and handed him one of the bottles.

“You drink beer, I hope,” she said and opened her own.

“Yeah sure...” he hesitated before looking down at his flask. He blinked in surprise at the familiar label and then looked up at her again.

“I have levo friends,” she explained with a smirk.

“Thanks,” he pressed out and opened it. Took a full mouth of the bitter but well tasting liquid.

She was sipping her own drink while watching him with a somehow satisfied and slightly humorous expression. As if he amused her in some way. It made him very self conscious and he withstood the impulse to shift where he sat and tried not to be intimidated by her. He failed. She just looked so confident, and why shouldn't she be. She was in her own home and had the knowledge and skill to kill him on the spot if he did something that displeased her. It both disconcerted him and turned him on a little. Yes, there was definitely something wrong with him.

He took another deep gulp from the beer and then cleared his throat.

“So...” he started. “I don't know about you, but I prefer to know my... euhm... well... know something about my... whatever you want to call it.” She didn't answer, just kept looking at him in that thrilling way. “So I'll start I guess.” Now he couldn't help but shift a little as he felt his pulse quicken and heat rising up his neck. Was he making a fool out of himself? “My name is...”

He was interrupted by how a visor suddenly swept in over her eyes. First now he saw the small indications of implants on either side of her eyes. Those weren't entirely legal, he knew.

“Your name is Konstantin Judd,” she said calmly as she read on her interface. “Born on a human colony in the Meta cluster. Father, mother, two sisters of which you are the youngest. Decent school grades. Finished your education at the School for Applied Arts, but quit after two years into a history program later on.” He froze where he sat. How did she...? where had she...? When had she had time to find out so much about him? “Have been engaged to a nice, blond girl by the name of Eva Thull. Broke it off when she decided she wanted to settle down and have kids. Wise man.” Her mandibles flared in a grin for a moment. “Are currently traveling the know galaxy with...” She hesitated, her eyebrows creasing in a question. “... a towel...” The orange hud disappeared from her face in an blink of an eye and she was now looking at him with a skeptical look on her face. “A towel? Really?”

Now it was his turn to grin. He told her about the _Guide_. She asked questions and looked baffled when he even pulled out his own copy and read her a thumbed out entry. In the end she was shaking her head. Humans, she had muttered under her breath.

The atmosphere around them had shifted into something more lighthearted. He almost felt at ease now, with her eyes alight in humor.

“Now you know who I am,” he said. “What's your name?”

A short huffing laugh escaped her.

“I almost killed you for seeing my face, what do you think I'll do to you if you know my name?” The turian got up on her hands and knees and crawled over to his end of the sofa. The way she moved reminded him of her predatory ancestry and his heart caught in his chest for a moment. But she didn't look threatening in any way, quite the opposite in fact. She climbed up in his lap and straddled his thighs.

If it was the slight alcoholic tingle in his body or the way she swept hungry looks over his face, he didn't know. But Konstantin dared to place his hands on her thighs, caressing them and squeezing them slightly. They were softer than he'd imagined. He had expected hard chitin and rough scales.

“But I know nothing about you,” he said while she places her hands on either side of his neck. He felt suddenly very exposed. “Who are you? What have you gone through to get here? Why did you kill those mercenaries? Why did you help that kid when the blood from them was still fresh on your hands? Why...?” Two sharp talons cut his words short. Fingers closed around his throat, but not hard, not in a choke hold. Yet he felt his head spin a little when the pads of her fingers expertly found two veins and pressed just hard enough to cut off the blood flow. Her face hovered mere inches over his face while his heart hammered away in his chest. Why was the threat of danger turning him on?

“You ask too many questions,” she whispered softly and somehow her voice only got more beautiful because of the contrast between it and her hold on him.

Then her mouth was on his and she proved that this was not the first time she kissed a human. Her lips were much more pliable than Konstantin had imagined a turian's could be. Now they moved with his, slowly separating his lips and then a lithe tongue darted in for a quick taste. Sometime while his head had started swimming and he sought out more of her alien taste she had let go of his throat and wound her fingers in his dark, short hair. She pushed herself against him, arching her back and grinding their pelvises together.

A low thrumming growl started in her chest and the reverberating sensation coursed through his body, straight down to his groin. He expected he was in for a hell of a ride.

 

_To Be Continued..._


	2. Oops! I'm Sorry! Breakfast?

 Konstantin felt himself growing hard between one heart beat and another as she rocked against him. The teasing friction through his pants made him moan into her mouth, and run his hands up her body, exploring as he went. When he reached her waist and back he enjoyed the feeling of her muscles moving under tight fabric and leather. She thrilled deep in her throat and escaped the kiss, breathing hard as their lips separated. His nostrils flared as he drew in deep of her smell and tried to control the butterflies fluttering around in his stomach.

“Here,” she said and grabbed both his hands and guided them to her waist, in the space where her hips dipped down in a very turian like way. She squeezed them and forced his fingers to massage her. Her body moved to press and caress itself into his hands and Konstantin felt heat spreading up through his belly, further up into his chest. It was truly a sight, seeing how she closed her eyes and moaned openly in response to his touch. “One of the few places on our bodies we don't have thick scales.” Her voice was breathy and her lower harmonics seemed to be all over the place at once.

As he kept up the administration of her sides the woman started unbuttoning her vest. This was the time Konstantin realized turian's didn't have breasts. He had never given it any deeper thought before, but when her upper body slowly was exposed to him it became blatantly obvious. Would he miss them, he wondered, during the throws of passion? He had always been very fond of breasts, what man in his right mind wasn't? A woman pressing herself into his hands as he squeezed and suckled them was one of the best things in the known universe. Now he became unsure if he was up to the task of pleasing her. Where would he put his hands? Was there any area that was off limit? Why hadn't he thought this through before she was already undressing in front of him? Oh, yes, now he remembered. She had tried to kill him. Good reason.

The doubts were soon forgotten when pale plated lips met soft ones again and a three fingered hand caressed down his abdomen. A sound like something between a gruff and groan slipped him when they opened up his pants without hesitation and skin met skin. The thought of how close those sharp talons were to his manly pride made him shiver as she closed long fingers around it. The next sound out of him, there was no doubt of what it was. He moaned deeply and slipped his tongue hungrily into her mouth while his fingers dug into the soft skin of her waist. It made her hand stagger for a moment and one talon scraped loosely against him. He hissed, but it was an unnecessary reaction. It didn't actually hurt and the threat only made him twitch in her hand.

Mandibles flaring in a grin she nipped her way over his three days stubble and down to his ear.

“You're a bit perverse, aren't you?” she cooed and made him blush violently. “The way I can do _anything_ to you turns you on a little bit, doesn't it?”

She let go and instead he felt the very tip of her sharp talon trail up from the base to the top slowly. The touch only barely registered on his skin.

Konstantin swallowed deeply.

Yes, yes it did and his body betrayed this for him as his hips struggled upwards to keep feeling the light touch of her talon. The woman graced his neck with her teeth and repeated the trail with her finger. The sensations so loaded with tension but so light Konstantin almost couldn't stand it. His nerves overloaded with just not enough touch and his muscles started to ache. He hadn't even noticed he had tauten them.

No, he changed his mind, he couldn't stand it. Something wild awoke inside of him he hardly ever felt. It was a primal part he still was a little afraid of. Afraid because his former bed partners had been gentle souls. Petite, human girls – he'd always had a weak spot for the fragile kind - and he had been scared that he would repulse them or even hurt them if he gave into that primal feeling. But this woman was no shy human girl. This was a tough turian woman and for once he threw himself into his need.

He gripped her hips and spun them around, down on the sofa, so he was positioned on top of her between her legs. She called out a bit in surprise, but the smile on her face told him she didn't mind. Konstantin started with kissing her lips as his hands roamed freely over her naked upper body. Her fingers found the clasps of his jacket and she slid them into it and over his shoulder to get it off him. He shrugged it the rest of the way and threw it over the couch back. To busy diving straight in and trailing tongue and lips over her neck to hear it land he let his hands wander south. She was purring now, flicking her mandible in his hair and exploring his back through touch alone.

The small leather skirt she was wearing was an odd contraption and it took him a while to find the fastenings. Not that he minded taking his time. She had a slight metallic taste to her skin, it was odd. Although he reasoned probably not strange. Didn't turians have some kind of alloy in their skin to protect from radiation? He though he had read that somewhere before. The skirt came off after a while and he moved his kisses and licks down her neck. Around her cowl and when the scales started to form he added teeth to the list of activities.

He figured she wasn't as receptive over her protective plates so he massaged her waist. Now that gave him some response. She curved her back and hummed contently. He smiled. This was fun and a bit like why he enjoyed his work. Exploring new worlds. Maybe he should add a note on the entry of turians after this? 'Tips of how to pleasure the turian lady.' Would his bosses go for that, he wondered.

Konstantin worked his hands down, massaging her abdomen, still soft, and kept creeping down to her inner thighs.

“What?” she wondered when he suddenly stopped and froze mid motion.

He tilted his head up from where he sat with his nose just below her lower ribs and then showed her the small gun he had found holstered in the inside of her left thigh. He blinked in surprise a couple of times as he looked at it. He hadn't had a clue she was armed.

She laughed.

“What?” she said, still laughing and took the tiny weapon from him. “It's my safety precaution.”

“But it's so tiny.” Konstantin couldn't help but chuckle a bit himself. Her glittering dark eyes were infectious.

“I'll have you know I've taken a mans head off with this thing,” she said and put it on the coffee table next to them.

“Oh I don't doubt it.” He wouldn't argue with her about this. He knew next to nothing about guns. Except how to shoot them.

Pale mandibles fluttered slightly as she looked at him.

“Please continue,” she said and with that she laid down on her back again.

Konstantin laughed again.

“If you say so.”

So he did. Konstantin kissed his way down her abdomen, down to the insides of her thighs while his fingers started to unbuckle her boots, the leather going up over her knees.

“Shit,” he swore as his finger instinctively went to his mouth. “What was that?” He could taste blood on his tongue. Something sharp had punctured the skin.

Konstantin looked up at her when he felt her muscles tense and freeze. She had propped herself up on her elbows again and looked down at him with big eyes. The expression in her face wasn't fear, not really, but she had gone paler than she was a minute ago.

“Fuck! Which side?” she asked with bated breath.

“What?”

“Which side?” she all but called out and pierced the human with her dark eyes. There was something incredibly wrong here.

“Left,” he said, confused.

That's when she bolted out of the sofa, almost toppled the confounded man out of it in her hurry. She ran into the adjoining room, cursing under her breath the entire way, and he could hear her scrounge around in there. Gathering his legs under him, he heaved his way out of the soft furniture.

“What are you doing?” he asked as he started to worry if he had offended her somehow. He couldn't get a read on what was going on here.

When Konstantin reached the opened door in to her bedroom he started to get dizzy. The world blurred in front of his eyes and he blinked hard a few times to try to clear them. Then his heart started to beat irregularly. It made a few long, hard pushes against his ribcage before it sped up and like a butterfly fluttered around in hard wind. What was happening? He felt his legs start to shake just as he reached the bed. Not caring much about an invitation right now he sat down, resting his forehead in his hands, his elbows propped up onto his knees.

“I don't feel so good...” he mumbled and felt her presence close in on him. She shoved something in front of his face. Two white colored pills.

“Swallow these.”

A glass of water materialized from nowhere.

“What...” Deep breaths followed the pounding in his head. “Is happening?”

“Quickly!” she urged. The fright and hurry in her voice made him stop questioning things. He just wanted the pain in his chest and head to go away.

It felt like his world started to tilt unnaturally just as his hand closed around cold, smooth glass. He thought he might have fallen sideways, because he could feel soft fabric on his cheek. His heart jumped a bone chattering beat in his chest one last time before he let his eyes drift close.

When he woke up he was laying on the bed, tucked away under a blanket. It took a while for his eyes to adjust to the dusky light shaping a stark silhouette of the doorway and window. A few seconds later he remembered were he was and what had happened. He started to turn around but stopped midway when his head started to pound violently.

“Holy f...” he grunted and laid back down.

“You awake?” a turian woman's voice came from one of the dark corners. Right... She was still around.

“I wish not,” Konstantin mumbled. “My head is killing me.” He slowly turned his head to face her. She sat propped in an armchair, her knees tucked up under her chin. Dark eyes glinted in the low light. “That's kind of creepy, you know.”

“I'm sorry,” she said with an even voice. “I had to make sure you woke up again.”

“Make sure... I...” he paused. “What happened exactly?”

The woman didn't wear her boots any longer, but she drew out a long thin needle like thing. White light reflected off it.

“I keep these in my boots,” she said. “They are laced with poison. I use them in my work. You were lucky to wake up. I guess I got the antidote into you fast enough.”

“What work do you do?” he couldn't keep himself from asking, but he was pretty sure he already knew the answer.

She just raised one eyebrow sceptically.

“I think you can figure it out by now,” she said. The tone was still disturbingly even. That's when he realized she only used her primary vocal cord. He might not be able to accurately hear or interpret the lower harmonics of turian speech but he sure could hear when it was absent. It freaked him out a little.

Konstantin looked up into the ceiling again. It had dark brown stains where water had snuck into the concrete.

“What did it do to me?” he wondered then. “The poison. Am I going to be fine?” He tried his best to not think about all the possibilities that could be a lasting effect of strange substances. He didn't feel fine.

“Yeah, you'll be okay.” He could hear her move. Rise from the chair and move over to the bed. The mattress dipped as she sat down. “It tried to stop your heart. Clog your veins and shut down your brain. But I don't think you got enough of it in your system to do any lasting damage.”

He didn't respond. He didn't know what to think. Should he trust her? She had already tried to kill him once, and now a second time, however inadvertently. Would she let him go if he asked to leave? He wasn't sure any longer if he wanted to have anything to do with her.

“I'm sorry.” Her voice was low and the thrum of her second cord was back. “I should have warned you. I'm not... used to... well... I don't generally bring strange men with me home.”

That got his attention.

“Why did you?” he asked.

She shrugged.

“I didn't want to kill you. I thought that if I got to know you, maybe I wouldn't have to.”

Was he really that easy to sway? She looked so sad, and she _had_ asked for forgiveness. It hadn't been her fault. Not that he had seen her face, nor that he had stung himself on her weapon. Maybe it was just chance and bad luck.

He studied her for a second, letting the silence sit between them. She shuffled her way back in the bed so she could rest her back on the headboard.

“Fine, I forgive you,” he said after a while. “Just... is there anything else I should know? A primed bomb under the bed perhaps?” He didn't mean to be rude. But he couldn't help it when his brain was slowly trying to beat it's way out of his skull.

She just scoffed.

“No,” she said. “Not really, and if something comes up I'll tell you.”

“Well then...” he muttered and carefully turned around so he lay on his side instead. “Since you almost killed me, and since I have such a headache I'm probably not going to be able to stand up. Can I spend the night?”

He felt her shuffle down behind him, could feel the heat from her body through the thin blanket. But she kept her distance, not pressing into him.

“Yes, you can.” He felt coarse fingers trailing up to the back of his neck. A bit of added pressure on a few spots. Konstantin's neck muscles grew slack and he was just about to object when he felt the pain in his head fade away.

“Thank you,” he mumbled.

“Don't mention it,” she mumbled back.

When Konstantin woke the next morning the air was filled with a familiar and welcome smell. The old fashioned human breakfast of bacon and eggs. He carefully crawled out from beneath the covers, his body sore from last night's escapes, thankful at least the headache was gone. He found his turian host in the small kitchen, bent over the stove with a spatula in one hand. A few bacon strips lay on a plate next to her on the bench, getting juicy in their own fat.

“Good morning,” she said without turning around from her work.

“Good morning,” he answered, hesitating in the kitchen doorway. If they hadn't come up with something that exactly resembled bacon and eggs in a dextro verity that must mean she had just made him breakfast. He wasn't sure how to feel about that.

She scraped off the scrambled eggs onto his plate, took it and turned around to face him.

“I uhm... here,” she said. “I hope you like this.” There was something off in her stance, like she was a bit afraid he would reject it. She held out the plate for him. God it smelled wonderful.

Konstantin took the food and sat down at the table. She joined him with a strange green fruit cut in half that she started carving juicy pieces from.

“How do you... Know how to cook this?” he asked and poked his food.

“I had a... uhm...” She hesitated, her eyes shifting quickly over his face. “Whatever. He liked to eat that stuff. He even told me I was a fairly good levo cook.” She plopped another piece of fruit into her mouth.

“Yeah?” Konstantin looked down on his food and wondered how long her levo friend had lived before she decided to kill him. Tentatively he scooped up some eggs, pierced a bacon piece and shuffled it into his mouth. “He was right.” He took another bite. “This is good.” He smiled at her.

It was like a weight was lifted from her shoulders and she let out a light breath.

“Good. I thought it was the least thing I could do, considering... everything,” she said and her mandibles flapped a bit.

He returned the smile.

They ate in relative comfortable silence for a while until the turian ask, as if in passing:

“What are you up to today?”

Konstantin paused to consider what may lay beneath such a question. Was the woman simply trying to make conversation or was it perhaps a little more ambiguous? What had she planned for the day? Would she let him leave if he choose to? Would she tag along if he did? Did he want her to tag along? Had she decided to not kill him at last? Certainly she must have or she wouldn't have made him breakfast, right?

He decided to take the pieces as they was laid down.

“I have a meeting with Pass Cerozy this afternoon,” he said and tried to sound just as unconcerned as she did. “I'm doing an interview with him for the _Guide_ on Omega. Apparently he is somewhat of a history fanatic.”

Dark eyes flew to his face and stayed there, unmoving. She looked impressed. She should be.

“ _The_ Pass Cerozy?” she asked. “The man who has more or less every faction on this station in his pocket?”

Konstantin felt he could afford a self satisfied grin.

“The one and the same,” he answered. “You're not the only one with hidden skills you know. He invited me over for a dinner party were I'm supposed to give him my questions.”

“Dinner party huh?” Her eyebrows creased slightly and her mandibles trembled.

“Yes? Is there something wrong with that?” He felt a slight twinge of nerves start to boil in his gut. He didn't like the look she was giving him.

“Have you ever been to an Elcor dinner party?” she asked.

“No?” Yeah, there was definitely some nerves in there now.

“But you have read up on their customs, right?” It sounded like she already knew the answer.

“No,” he gave it.

“I... hm... see...” She returned to her fruit for a moment. The silence that settled for a few moments were less than comfortable. “They have... well, rules. A lot of unwritten etiquette. You could offend them quite a bit if you did something, however inadvertently, wrong. From rumor the Cerozy family isn't one to offend. Just saying.” She shrugged, like she didn't care whether he did or not.

Etiquette, huh? No one had told him about any of that. In about six hours he would enter the esteemed counts house and as of right now there was no saying if he would ever exit it. He didn't have time to pull out some of his contacts. The _Guide_ didn't have any information of the likes of this. He made a mental note of including a full report of all their alien habits if he ever survived this. And a extranet search was just as unreliable as... apparently his lifespan if he went to dinner tonight.

“I could teach you,” the turian woman mused while watching him start to panic.

“You could?” Hope! There was good in the universe yet! “What do you know about Elcor dinner habits?”

“I think you'd be surprised,” she said with another flick of her mandibles, showing off her rows of teeth. “In my line of work you have to know many kinds of things.” She motioned pointedly with her fork towards his half eaten plate with eggs and bacon. “Eat up, dear man.”

“Hm?” He raised a questioning eyebrow.

“And clear your schedule of today, I'm taking you shopping.”

Konstantin had the feeling, mostly from the mischievous look in her eyes, that today he would learn a lot about the station.

Turned out she hadn't been joking when she said she was taking him shopping. He found himself being dragged down into the stations lower decks. This was clearly not a place for anyone who didn't want to get their fingers chopped off together with a bellyful of removed viscera. The docking level where Afterlife was located was Citadel clean and orderly compared to this.

“It's because no one rules this particular area,” his guide explained to him. “Most wards have a gang keeping order. But this... I guess you could say it is a sort of meeting ground for them. They come here when they want to talk or make deals. A demilitarized zone. People take advantage of this and try to sell stuff that doesn't go over well in their respective homes. But it also tend to draw out the worst in people since there's no one holding up any laws.”

“I thought there weren't any laws on Omega,” Konstantin asked, confused.

“Not written ones, no. But take, lets say the ward your motel is located. It's under the Blue Suns jurisdiction. For all the shit the Suns cause they are great at keeping you safe, as long as you pay the protection money. They have certain rules and policies, and if you break them you go out on your ass, best case scenario. Just as Blood Pack, the Sisters or any other gang have their own set.” She moved a dirty cloth hanging in front of a doorway out of the way and gestured him to get inside. “Here we are. It might not look like much, but the woman running this place makes great Elcor formal wear.”

Konstantin found himself in a small clothing store. A particular smell crept into his nose and made it itch something fierce. He sneezed just as an asari walked out into the shop, coming down from a couple of stairs in the corner.

“Awira,” his turian friend greeted her as she stepped up behind the counter.

“Good to see you,” the asari smiled and they fist bumped in a familiar manner.

“You too, how's Olar?” Pale mandibles spread in a smile.

“Oh you know, he complains about the fast goings and comings of the people here.” Awira leaned on the counter and her purple skin gleamed in the slightly reddish light of the shop. “Did you know the Tirads tried to take over the market district, not a week past?”

“I heard,” the turian nodded. “Did you guys get out alright before all the shooting started?”

“Yeah, old Mancy down the street warned us in time. And thank the Godess for that. You know how it takes Olar time to just get out of bed and dressed.”

“I'll make sure to tip him properly next time I visit,” she grinned.

Awira laughed, clear and pearly, sharing in some private joke.

“So what can I do for you today?” she asked then and gave Konstantin a passing glance.

“This man here.” Pale strong fingers grabbed his shoulder. “Is going to an Elcor dinner party tonight.”

Awira's eyes turned suspicious.

“Yeah?” she drawled. “Not the Cerozy gathering?”

Her turian friend scoffed.

“I should know better than to try to keep things like that from you,” she said with a pleased grin.

“I do try to keep up in the social happenings on the station,” the asari smiled before turning full on towards Konstantin. “And he needs something to wear, am I right?”

Konstantin spent the next hour on top of a podium having his measures taken, cloth draped around him and needles being used way too close to his skin. His turian companion had taken up residence in a chair next to the working asari and the women chatted on about this and that and just who was rumored to attend this party. Apparently it was a big deal. He took the opportunity to study her, how she seemed perfectly relaxed in the small store. Their asari hostess and her were obviously fast friends. It perked his interest. She didn't seem like one to have friends. Not that she was obnoxious or rude in any way. It was just the way she seemed to be a bit on the paranoid side. Or maybe it was him putting his own prejudices of assassins on her. He figured they all had to be cold blooded killers. Just as he had witnessed her be during the fight the past night. But maybe she actually cared about this tailor.

It bugged him the asari hadn't slipped her name into conversation yet. He really wanted to know. She was a mystery. Konstantin liked mysteries, he liked solving them. He was going to solve this one.

“So what do you think?” Awira asked and gestured towards the mirror lining the wall.

Nothing came to him. He was wearing a sort of suit. Deep blue and a shawl hanging around padded shoulders, going all the way down to his knees. It was lined with a white intricate pattern. The only thing he didn't like was how it looked as if he was wearing a sort of robe, the pants so wide it almost looked more like a skirt than actual pants.

“Looks great,” the turian woman said before he could respond. “Thank you.”

“My pleasure, and if anyone decides to comment on the ensemble... well... you know were they can find me.” The asari smiled again. She smiled a lot, this woman. Konstantin liked her. She seemed like a gentle soul.

They wrapped the new clothing up and he got to jump into his own clothes again before they left. His companion had insisted she pay for it.

“You wouldn't be able to afford it,” she told him when he protested. “And it's the least I can do.”

“Really? Breakfast and now a suit?” he asked, eyebrows going high.

“Well...” She looked a bit uncomfortable as she mumbled. “I almost killed you.”

Awira's eyes snapped to him, they flew back and forth between them for a short second. Something incredulous behind the suspicious look, but she didn't comment.

They told her goodbye and left.

The next hours they spent going from one shop to the next, looking for something to give the hostess.

“She will be expecting a gift when you enter,” the turian explained. “It is a tradition from their home planet that represent a wish that they keep their feet firmly on the ground. It has to be just right too. Not too fancy and not too cheap. It sets the whole tone for your role on the party. Depending on what it is she will expect certain things from you. We have to find something that says _I'm trustworthy_ but not _I'm important_. You don't want to draw attention to yourself in this gathering, believe me.” She paused in front of a stand with small statuettes.

“Why?” he asked.

She eyed him up and down once.

“Important people are going to be there. _Dangerous_ important people. You do not want them to remember you or they might pull you into much more than you bargained for.”

“Oh,” was all he could think of. He hadn't thought of that. Taking he breath against the nerves coiling in his gut he thanked whoever was listening that he had met this mysterious guide. “So something unassuming, but nice, then?”

“Exactly.” She flicked her mandibles at him, glad he was catching on.

“Something like this?” He walked to the booth next to the one they were at and picked up a ten centimeters tall figurine portraying a tree in stone.

“Maybe you should put that back?” the salarian behind the booth told him. He looked a bit nervous and his big, dark eyes flickered out over the crowd behind him.

“I wasn't going to steal it,” Konstantin defended himself automatically. “I was just going to show my friend. I was planning to pay for it.”

“Please,” he urged. “Put it back.”

“Is there a problem here?” a rough voice came from behind him and Konstantin turned around. There was a big krogan standing there in the stark red heavy armor of the Blood Pack. His flanks were taken up by a turian and a human, both looking menacing and sporting the same red armors.

“No, there isn't.” The turian woman came up behind him and crossed her arms in front of her chest. She glared at the krogan, meeting his challenge head on.

The krogan blinked. Konstantin had to take a second look to believe it. Yes, the krogan blinked. What was more his followers looked uncomfortable.

“Oh, madam, I didn't know...” the krogan started to excuse himself. “But your friend here...” He shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

“He's new,” she said with the same bite in her words. “He didn't know.”

“Oh... Okay. In that case.” The three of them started to backpedal. “We won't bother you again.”

“Good.” But she didn't take her eyes off them until they had disappeared into the crowd. She grabbed the small figurine from Konstantins shocked fingers and put it back on the table. “Sorry,” she told the salarian owner and then grabbed Konstantin's wrist, a three fingered hand on his back and started to lead him away from the clashing point.

“What was that?” he breathed as he tried to reign in his heart again. Adrenalin had spiked as soon as the Blood Pack group had neared him. They weren't exactly knows for their levelheadedness.

“Although this is considered a demilitarized zone, you aren't allowed to openly buy from traders from another district,” she explained calmly, no hint of the stint showing in her face or tone.

“What?” he didn't understand.

“That salarian trader, he pays tribute to the Blood Pack. You live in a Blue Suns area.”

“What? Oh... But... How was I supposed to know that!” Konstantin threw out with his arms. All these unwritten rules drove him crazy.

“Here, look...” the turian woman stopped at a corner to a shop and showed him a spray painted sign by the door that he just had taken for normal vandalism. It was half painted over by a whole set of letters and the rest of the wall looked just as bad. But now when he really looked at it he saw the sign for the Blue Suns.

“Okay... I have to remember that,” he sighed. “But that's not really what I meant.”

“No?” She raised a questioning eyebrow.

“They backed off,” he pointed out.

“So?” She didn't alter her stance. Arms crossed in front of her and her weight resting on one of her jutting hips.

“A well armed krogan with backup backed off,” he tried to explain the obvious to her. “Because you said so.”

“And?” she shrugged and turned to lead them on in the hunt for the perfect gift.

He had to jog to catch up with her.

“And?” he said, exasperated. “Armed fighters doesn't just back off if a tiny turian lady, no offense, says so.”

He saw how she tried to hold back a smirk.

“What can I say?” She shrugged again. “I have a big influence on people.”

“That's not it though, is it?” He was getting frustrated in not knowing who she was.

“No, it isn't.” Her tone told him to not ask more. It was well hidden, but the very real threat underneath the surface made him shiver a little. So he didn't push.

“It was a good gift though,” she mused after a while of awkward silence. “Offering a piece of your world and traditions in the gift. Very polite and fitting.”

“My world and...? It was just a tree.”

“Elcor doesn't have trees on their world. Too high gravity.” She threw him a glance. “For an author of a _Guide to the Galaxy_ you sure don't know a lot about it.”

He flushed deep red.

“I haven't written all of it! Just a few articles!” he objected.

She laughed and kept on plaguing him about it.

An hour or so later they found a fitting gift.

“You have to bow when you present it,” she said. “But don't loose eye contact or she'll think you're too weak. If the man of the house, in this case Pass, is in the room you have to bow to him first. But make sure you bow even deeper to her. It is her house and her party.”

She had been giving him advice about what to do and what not to do during the dinner the entire day. His head was spinning with information. All of them small details, but just as important.

“You know what,” he said at last as they made her way over to a dingy looking restaurant to get something to eat. “I will never be able to remember all of this.” She shrugged, like she didn't give a damn if he failed or not. “But maybe...” He was unsure how she would take this. “Maybe if you don't have anything else planned tonight... You could come with me and keep me from, you know... getting killed.” He studied her tentatively while she considered it.

“Hm... I don't have anything planned tonight,” she mused without looking at him. Then she smiled. “Sure, I'll go with you.”

Konstantin took a deep relaxing breath. Maybe he would survive this after all.


	3. Dinner with the Elcor

So far the dinner had gone as smooth as one could expect. Konstantin had been a bit befuddled when his plus one had showed up without her colony markings though. It left her face strangely naked somehow. 

“Believe me, it will be easier this way,” she had told him. “The only thing they will see when they look at me is a barefaced turian. Probably some escort lady you picked up for this very occasion.”

“What!” he had exclaimed, appalled.

She had only laughed and started to put in a pair of lenses in her eyes that drastically changed her eye color from the dark, almost black, brown to a pale blue that melted in seamlessly with her pale skin.

“I will not be the only one in there,” she told him and hooked an arm around his elbow. “Just saying.”

She had a similar outfit to his own, the long scarf folded elegantly around her otherwise naked shoulders that dipped all the way down to her knees. Of course she pulled off the dress look much better than he did, and it hugged her waist in a way that told him the possible turian man in there would have to look twice.

But she really had been a rock at his side the whole evening. All the way from the door, where they were greeted by the lady in the house, a big elcor woman, or so Konstantin assumed, with pale pink makeup. The gift had been taken gratefully with a monotone:

“Politely: How thoughtful.”

His guide had discreetly tugged at his arm to show just how deep he should bow, and then pretended to let him lead her into the adjoining room where drinks were served and a whole group of people from different races were gathered.

“Next we need to say hello to mr Cerozy,” she whispered without moving her lips one fraction. Her mandibles flared out in a smile when they stopped in front of an impressive looking Elcor with a black scarf around his shoulder that went all the way down to the ground. It had an intricate silver embroidery on the edges and one could tell from the quality alone that this guy didn't have to scamp on necessities. Not that anyone who saw his house could ever get that impression. It was big and the inside was decorated in a classy way with all the latest tech. There were also a great collection of old antiques from different time periods and planets.

The lady on his arm, for he could not call her anything but a lady tonight, she looked incredible, showed him once again the deepness of the bow and then whispered in his ear to introduce himself.

“Konstantin Judd,” he said at once and it felt wrong to not stretch out a hand to shake. “And this is...” He froze for a second were he stood, his heart jumping up in his throat. What should he present her as? He didn't know her name, and even if he did it was apparent she didn't want it spread.

“Sol Mesh,” she filled in smoothly and her eyes sparkled with lack of intelligence as she curtsied in a way that was very unlike the woman Konstantin had gotten to know over the past days.

Was it just his imagination or was mr Cerozy checking her out?

“With badly hidden flirtation: You look stunning, miss Mesh,” he droned out.

“Well thank you, mr Cerozy,” she smiled politely. Or what Konstantin assumed was a polite smile for a turian, as her mandibles only widened slightly and she tilted her head to shyly look down. “I must say though, your house is absolutely amazing, your wife have done a splendid job for this party.”

“Fond and proud: She has at that.” He shifted slowly. “Politely: I hope you two will have a pleasant evening. Excuse me.” 

“Thank you, mr Cerozy,” Konstantin replied when the turian next to him lightly bumped him with her elbow. “I'm sure we will.”

They made their way over the floor to the bar were a human man in a fine jacket stood and served drinks.

“That went very well,” she said encouragingly.

“You thought so?” Konstantin asked. It felt good to hear her say that. Maybe this didn't have to be so hard after all.

She nodded and they ordered a couple of drinks before heading out in the parlor again. She kept whispering information in his ear. 

“Mati Nassiti, big time weapon dealer. Newly sold to both parties in a border dispute in the terminus systems. Brilliant businessman, I spent a summer with his niece once. Lovely girl with an exotic taste. But don't mention that to him.”

Or:

“Nilly Talpa. She owns half the shops over in the Tuhi District. Not directly, but just the same she gets more and more wealthy each time the money influx rises there.”

It was a good thing too.

“Don't talk to him. That's Okoa Kioy. He has a bad temper and I'm not going to tell you the rumors that comes out of his station. Not unless you get me very drunk first, and then you'll have nightmares for the rest of your life.” He could feel how she started to breath less and her body tensed up when they passed the hanar hovering in a corner. Two asari with next to nothing in the way of clothing sat at his feet, playing with a pair of tentacles. Konstantin tried to ignore the freezing fear that started to pool in his gut. If this turian lady was afraid of him he didn't want to know what went on in the hanar's station, let alone talk to him. The rest of the guests seemed to give mr Kioy a give berth as well. Only Pass Cerozy stopped to speak to him on occasion. 

During the meal a little later Konstantin was guided through the many rules of elcor table manners. First off no one sat down before mr Cerozy's wife. Next they waited until everyone had their plates full and the elcor host had given a small speech in the way of wishes granted for luck to bloom on everyone at his table and how thankful he was to have his closest friends here. Konstantin couldn't really pay attention at the entire thing because it just went on and on, slowly, in that monotone droning voice that always made him sleepy. It ended with a wish that everyone would keep their feet on the ground and then they all raised their glasses and emptied the small thing. Konstantin had too struggle to not throw the liquid back up. It was wile to say the least and made him stomach churn in agitation.

Expertly and discreetly his lady talked him through what utensils to use and what to eat first. Most of tasted okay, and it was obviously all high class, but he could think of a ton of other dishes that he'd rather be eating right now.

“So, mr Judd.” It was a turian man on the other side of the table that spoke. They had greeted him earlier and Konstantin remembered how his eyes had lingered on his lady friend longer than was polite. He had a sharp looking shin and gray scales that reminded him of steel. Red stripes dashed out from his eye sockets and down his neck. Konstantin couldn't help but wonder if he was what went for stylish in the turian society because his own turian had given him more than one stolen glance over the hours. The old territorial human streak had alighted in him even though he had no right to it.

“Yes?”

“What is it that you do?” he asked and held his eyes with a piercing gaze.

Of course he hadn't heard of the  _ Guide _ either, and they both dove into a discussion of journalism and it's impact on the galactic society. Konstantin tried to keep it short and to the point. He didn't know what did and what didn't fly with this gentleman. His turian lady hadn't told him any specifics about him, and he didn't want to offend the other man in some cultural misunderstanding way. 

But he turned out to be pleasant enough, his face friendly as they talked and he had almost gotten over his first impression of him when he turned towards the lady next to him.

“What is it that you do then, miss Mesh?” he asked.

She tilted her head slightly to the left and gave him a sweet smile. Konstantin himself couldn't keep from holding his breath. Sure there had been other escorts here, just as she had predicted. But it didn't seem like something you talked about.

“I'm sorry to say, it's not very interesting,” she answered, still with that sweet smile on her lips.

“I can't imagine a beauty as you could do anything that would deter me.” The grin on their table neighbor’s face was ingratiating to say the least.

“I work as an assistant for Firias Dew, you know who that is?” Konstantin certainly did not.

“Over in the Doru District?” Apparently this man did. She nodded. “He do good work, I hear.”

“Oh, sure, no one would want their rooms to suddenly go space cold, now would they?”

Was it just him or did these two exchange looks and somehow hidden meanings he didn't understand?

“I'll have to go over there and pay my tribute one day,” the turian with the red markings, that Konstantin couldn't remember what his name was, to much information in one day, said.

When a turian woman two plates down from them shifted uncomfortably in her chair and gave them a quick glance he knew something was up. He wondered if he dared ask about it later when they were alone.

After a dinner that stretched on for hours, who knew they would go through five different kinds of meals, mr Cerozy's wife invited all of them into the living room. More drinks were produced and cigars were offered to the ones who wanted one.

“Now would be a great time to do your interview,” his lady friend told him and nudged him in the direction of the wealthy elcor. 

The two of them sat down by a table and Konstantin picked out his data pad. He felt more comfortable now, as he asked questions and took notes, it was his domain. They talked about the history of the station, how it had come to be what it was and why. He was about halfway through his questions when his turian gently took him by the elbow and whispered.

“I'll be right back.”

Too concentrated on his work he just nodded and gave her a quick smile. 

A little later he was invited to join in a card game and he happily obliged. Cards were no stranger and they played the usual games and rules you found wherever you went in the galaxy. When three games in she still hadn't returned to the room Konstantin started to wonder. It hadn't been that long, and she certainly could take care of herself but... He looked around and sure enough the turian with the red markings were gone as well.

“Excuse me gentlemen,” he said and folded his cards. “I think my date has run off.” They laughed together and he left to start look for her.

He walked out into the hallway and down towards the toilets that he had been showed earlier. Then he stopped. There were voices coming out of a door that was ajar a few centimeters. The voices were hushed and hurried and he recognized  _ her _ voice among them. With a bad feeling creeping in on him he walked over silently and peeked in.

It was a regular room, maybe a guestroom of some sort, or an office, he couldn't make much of it out from this angle. It was dark, but he saw the voices owners. The turian with the red stripes stood in front of his own lady and it almost looked as if they were arguing.

“Sol, what are you doing here?” he asked.

“What do you _think_ I'm doing here?” she answered, and now the pretense of the assistant character was gone. She had her own confident stance and tone.

Red stripes shook his head.

“That's bold, even for you.”

“How about you then? What are you doing here?” she asked.

“I happen to be the count's friend,” he answered and stretched his back slightly.

“Uh-huh,” she answered like she didn't believe one word of it.

“Come on, Sol, don't do this to me.” The man closed in on her and she only had to take one step back to be blocked by a desk.

“I have to, you know I do,” she objected and put her hands on his chest when he stepped in closer than any casual acquaintance should.

“But I have a good thing going here,” he insisted. His hands traveling up her thighs and hooking around her waist. He lowered his head and breathed in over her neck.

“Stop it,” she said but the smile on her lips told Konstantin that she didn't really mean it, especially since her own hands were on his hips.

He should leave, go back to the living room with the others and maybe play some more cards. He really should.

Then red stripes' hands shifted down to her rear and pulled her against him, hip connecting with hip. His head was moving in a way that told Konstantin that he was either kissing or licking her neck. She had stretched it out a little, to give him better access and one of her hands were playing with his fringe. A dual kind of purr were emanating from them. Konstantin knew that purr, she had done it the night before on the sofa.

“We shouldn't do this here,” she objected, but it sounded distant.

“Mhm...” he hummed, ignoring her.

“I'm still not going to...” but her words were cut short.

He bit her neck and her voice hitched and suddenly Konstantin didn't want to see any more.

He silently hurried back to the living room, trying his damnedest to quell that cold flame that wanted to take his breath away and force his body to go back there and punch that guy. It was not any of his business. Just because he had known her for almost a full cycle. Almost had sex with her. Slept in her bed. She had made him breakfast and... No, not any of it meant that he should who she decided to sneak off with. It would just get him in trouble. She was a grown woman, she could make her own decisions, far far away from his preferences. 

Trying to keep his cool he ordered another drink and dove into another card game. But he kept being distracted and soon his losing streak made him stop.

Three thin fingers closed over his shoulder and he had to consciously keep himself from flinching. He had just folded his cards and told everyone he was done. They wholeheartedly agreed.

“Have you gotten everything you came for?” the turian woman asked.

“Yes,” he answered and stood up. _Have you?_ But dangerous men were watching so he forced out a gentle smile.

“Should we perhaps make our goodbyes? It's starting to get late,” she said.

“Sure.”

They searched out the hosts of the party, bowed one last time and then headed out of the house. Konstantin was so upset over what he had seen he didn't even contemplate over the fact that he had managed to go through the night without getting killed.

The silence was tense as they took a cab back to her apartment. She must have read his mood because she didn't say a word on the entire way home. He really tried to not be mad at her. He didn't have any right to at all. He just didn't succeed very well.

“So...” she said and turned to face him outside her door. “I would say I had a good time, but that wouldn't be very true.” She grinned in an attempt at humor.

He scoffed.

“Really?” Konstantin couldn't keep the irony from bleeding through. She had opened this Pandora's box after all.

Her brows pressed together and she looked at him more closely.

“Did I... What a... Are you mad at me?” she asked.

He closed his eyes and breathed in deeply and slowly once.

“Yes,” he said as he tried to keep his temper in check. “I'm sorry, I don't have any business telling you who should and should not sleep with, but I can't help it.”

She blinked, perplexed and remained silent for a moment as she stared at him.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

Really? She was  _ really _ going to play the innocence card?

“I saw you,” he threw out. “I saw you with that guy with the red stripes in that room in the hall.”

She shook her head, trying to understand.

“What...?”

“Who is he anyway?” he interrupted her. “You two were ogling each other the whole evening.”

“We work in the same business,” she replied. “I have run into him a couple of times.”

“Yeah well, you sure as hell ran into him tonight, or maybe better yet to say he ran into you!”

“I didn't sleep with him!” Her mandibles were flaring wildly and her teeth were bared and all of a sudden Konstantin realized she could kill him in the blink of an eye if she felt like it. This might not have been the best of ideas. Right now though he was so mad he didn't care much.

“Oh excuse me for thinking so when he was more or less between your legs with you moaning and humping...” The sharp look she gave him cut him off.

“Then explain to me why he's laying passed out in that same room and won't be waking up for at least a day!” She was so close she was shouting him in the face now.

Konstantin went silent and still for a second.

“What...?”

“I couldn't let him blow my cover,” she explained and her shoulders lowered to their normal position again.

He searched her eyes, her weird stark blue lens eyes, for the truth.

“How do I know you're not lying to me?” he asked.

“You can't,” she answered simply, meeting his eyes without a single waver. “And maybe you shouldn't have to...” There was something so incredibly lonely in her voice when she lowered her gaze and started to take a step back and turn around. It hurt Konstantin all the way in to his soul and suddenly he didn't care if she told him the truth or not.

He grabbed her arm and spun her back around, capturing her lips when her head turned to look at him. He pressed her close to his body. That had sounded like a goodbye. Like he never would get to see her again, and somehow that didn't sit well with him. He didn't want to wake up in the morning and not be able to call her or see her. It was stupid and silly and downright idiotic. But he was just a man and he couldn't do anything else but kiss her like she would float away if he let go.

The kiss lasted and was renewed when her hands tangled up in his short hair and pulled him closer. Suddenly a fire roared and started burning inside of him, his hands seeking their way down to her hips and waist. She made this small sound, a purring, half held in moan and pressed herself against him.

He tore away from her only when he couldn't breathe any more and both of them were panting for a minute before she asked:

“Do you wanna come in?”

He nodded.

“Yes.” And tried to not let it show how much he wanted it.

She quickly opened the door, but when he stepped in behind her he almost bumped into her back as she stopped short.

“What is it?” he asked. 

Surprisingly strong hands grabbed him and pulled him to the wall, a hand covering his mouth.

“Shh,” she breathed and her eyes flew all over the cluttered apartment. 

This wasn't a joke, at least it didn't feel like one. Her body was tense against his own and she meddled with her long skirt for a moment before she fished out a gun and handed it to him.

“Can you shoot?” she asked so quiet he almost didn't hear her.

Konstantin nodded and looked over the pistol. It was a heavy duty Predator, not the fanciest, but powerful. 

She let go of him and crouched down, showed him to stay put, and advanced silently through the room, weaponless. When she peeked around the corner to her bedroom a sharp  _ ratatata _ whistled past her head and the wide spray from the submachine gun made stuffing fly out of the couch. It didn't deter her one bit, her omni-tool lit up and an arm wave and a second later something blew up in the adjoining room. She disappeared into the smoke. 

Konstantin had his heart far up in his throat, the gun pointed towards the door opening and he had just started to contemplate if he should move closer when more gunfire filled the apartment. 

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” she cursed as she ran out into the living room again. She swept the area with a cursory glance and then ran for the exit. “Come on!” The turian woman now carried a bag around her shoulders and waved him to follow. 

Five minutes later they were out of the building. Stairs, why stairs? Konstantin could hardly breathe. She dove into one of the seedier looking alleys down the street and he followed her with his lungs burning. She had opened a hatch to one of the service tunnels they came here in the previous night.

“Get in,” she urged. This time he didn't hesitate.

The darkness was total when she closed the hatch behind them, but he crawled on. After a few minutes she let her visor cover her eyes, but the light it provided didn't reach far enough for Konstantin to see anything. It was like her eyes were bobbing along in the darkness. In most other circumstances it could have been funny. Pale fingers closed around his hand despite the lack of sight and started walking, almost running. 

The world around him shrunk down to the sound of their feet against the metal floor and both of them breathing hard from the sprint.

“Do you even know where we are going?” he asked after a while in the bitch black tunnel. His voice gave off a spooky echo.

“I have night vision in the visor,” she told him and turned a corner. Of course she had.

“How did you know they were there?” he asked. It had bothered him. Between the panic of getting ambushed and fleeing for their lives anyway.

“There were footprints in the dust, and some of my stuff had been moved,” she answered without stopping.

“How did... but your stuff was everywhere!” he protested.

“Not everywhere,” she explained. “I knew exactly where I had left everything. Someone who breaks in and finds chaos won't bother putting stuff back where they found it. They might do that if I had everything neatly ordered though.”

It was just dawning on Konstantin how paranoid this woman was. Maybe with reason, seeing as it had probably just saved their lives.

He kept quiet after that and about fifteen minutes later she opened another hatch and they stepped out into an alleyway. For all he knew it could have been the same alley they entered in, although he hoped it wasn't. They looked almost the same and he had lost all sense of direction in that tunnel.

“We have probably lost them,” she said as they turned out into the street. 

“Who were they?” he asked and veered around a turian headed in the opposite direction. They were in a market district he realized. People buzzed everywhere, lounging by a bar or looking through the small shops. It would be easy to lose two people in this mess.

“I don't know,” she answered. “I didn't get a really good look. But they were sloppy, so probably some mercenaries trying to get some fast cash.”

“Cash... mercenaries...? Wait, what?” Konstantin shook his head. This entire evening just went too fast for him. “Are you... is there a hit out on your head?”

That made her laugh as she stopped in front of a cab station. It wasn't a very nice laugh.

“You should only know...” she smirked to herself. Like almost getting killed was the highlight of her day. Maybe it was. Maybe she got off on the danger, on having people pay money to see her dead.

“Now what?” he asked and eyed the cabs zooming in and out of the area. 

“Now we...” she hesitated. “Well... You, go home, get a good night sleep and wake up tomorrow with something to write about in your _Guide to the Galaxy_.”

He shuffled where he stood, still in his formal elcor robe. He felt kind of ridiculous. But no one gave them more than a passing glance.

“What about you?” he inquired trying, and failing, to not sound so curious. 

“I'll... uhm...” She scratched the back of her neck. “Maybe it's better if you don't know that.”

“But...” Konstantin wanted to object. No. He didn't go separate ways. He didn't care if it was dangerous.

“Look,” she said and took his hands in both of hers. “Konstantin, it's not...” She sighed deeply. “You can't be with me, it's not... what happened back there it's... that's me, every day.”

“It could be an adventure,” he smiled and tried to push down the clump that threatened to work it's way up his throat.

“An adventure were you would die.” Her voice was not higher than a whisper now and she didn't want to meet his eyes. 

“Maybe it doesn't have to be that way,” he said on a crazy hunch. “What if we just got out of here? We could go anywhere. My next assignment is over in Citadel space, I have enough on Omega to last me a lifetime.” He laughed dryly. God, he wanted off this crazy rock. “You could come with me? I hear the hot springs on Huningto's moon is nice this time of year. We have to try them out. It could be a great story.” Was he pleading now? What had this woman done to him? She looked so sad and determined to spend her life alone. He couldn't allow that.

“Huningto you say?” She tilted her head up a little to look at him. Hope started to jump around in his chest when she smiled shyly.

“Well it's more of a satellite than a moon,” he explained. “But they have built this big new expensive vacation resort there and my boss told me to take a look. What do you say?” He tried to smile his best winning smile and he just hoped he didn't look deranged.

“I don't have anywhere to stay tonight,” she suddenly changed the subject. “How will I know when you leave?”

Oh, right. So maybe the smile worked. Konstantin stepped closer and captured her lips in a kiss instead of answering. 

 


	4. Turian Women 101

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you don't feel like reading explicit sex, this chapter is skipable. The only content is a sex scene, therefore it is a bit shorter than the other chapters. Hope you who reads it enjoys it nevertheless.

During the cab ride over to his place she had climbed over into his lap. By the time they reached the motel Konstantin was about as ready to burst as any man could be. The receptionist barely saw them when they dashed through the small, dirty lobby and up the stairs.

It was a cheap place, only three stories high, but his friend's cousin's ex owned it, so he got a good discount on the rooms. Rooms that weren't much to brag about, as was made clear when he finally got the door open. The woman had started to paw at him through the thin robe, her arms wrapped around him from behind. He tongue was sneaking it's way over his neck and around his ear. He hadn't known turian tongues were that long before.

The wall shook slightly when she pushed him into it as the door opened, a deceptively strong hand against his chest. The hall lamp rattled and started to swing slowly back and forth, the light shifting around them. Shadows growing long before shrinking and disappearing completely. Her teeth were dragging along his neck, his breath hitching and heat flaming inside his body. Konstantin was fairly certain she wouldn't kill him, or even hurt him, now. But the hint of threat still got his blood boiling.

Talons tore into his clothes and quickly started to undress him and that long tongue trailed up over his cheek and found his lips. He moaned into the kiss, the smell of her arousal filling him, as he tried to find the hatches of her robe. He wanted to feel skin under his fingers, feel the heat of her body against his chest.

The kiss grew deep and passionate as more and more clothes dropped to the floor. When they were all but bare a sharp talon scraped up his throat and out under his chin. She pulled back from him, dodging his hands and gave him a look that made his knees grow weak. Mandibles flaring softly she turned and walked towards the bed. Sensual lines flowed down her body, her hips shifting here and there with each step.

Konstantin swallowed thickly when he watcher her crawl on all four up the bed. She gave him another of her teasing smiles over her shoulder before turning around and laying down, stretching her limbs in a relaxed fashion, arms above her head. It felt like his entire body was pulsing and he couldn't contain the groan as he rushed to her, climbing over her and pressing his body down into the welcoming embrace.

He couldn't think straight any more, all he knew was that he wanted her. Sounds tearing out of him as he ground his pelvis down between her legs. The fabric of his underwear caught on the edges of her hard plates and he growled in frustration, starting to slither out of them and kicking them to the side.

The woman had that infuriatingly sexy smile on her lips still. Konstantin wanted to rob her of it, to make her eyes roll up into her skull and make her whimper for him. He knew how to do it, too. Or at least he did if she had been a human. Screw it, he thought as he trailed his lips down her body, his hands playing with the sensitive skin on her waist, he could chance it.

She spread her legs further when Konstantin moved to rest between them. Soft sounds that tickled his curiosity of what was to come floated out of her as he licked her belly. The tangy metal taste rolling around in his mouth. He moved one hand down to her pelvic plates and found they had parted somehow, heat emanating from between them.

“This is right, right?” he asked. He really didn't want to screw this up, and she obviously had been with humans before. He trusted that she knew what to do and that they... fit. When his fingers gently ghosted over the slit her hips rose to apply more pressure. “I guess so.” Konstantin couldn't keep the smug tone from his voice. She hummed approvingly, purring deep in her throat.

The smell that met his nose was intriguingly foreign. He wondered how she would taste. The plate edge under his fingers felt coarse as he gently teased it up and down, slowly pressing down, to gauge her reactions. It was very satisfying how she made a small, high pitched sound. Or how her hips rolled, trying to hurry up his movements.

It seemed he was doing a fair enough job, so he was a bit surprised when she quickly pulled away from him as he gently added his tongue. Dragging it from bottom of the slit all the way to the top.

“What the...” She raised herself, leaning on her hands so she could look down at him. Konstantin froze where he lay, resting on his elbows. He felt like a deer frozen in a headlight. She didn't look mad, but the intense tone of her voice kept him still. “Was that your tongue?”

“Yes?” he breathed, unsure if he had managed to ruin this night after all.

She blinked her eyes a few times, the clear blue lenses still looked weird to him. Konstantin couldn't be certain but he thought she looked a bit nervous.

“I haven't... I mean... turians generally don't... with their tongue.” Yes, definitely nervous. The bed bounced lightly as she shifted her weight around.

“Oh...” was all that could form in his current state of mind. His body was screaming at him, particularly one part of him, to not stop. _Please don't stop, we were doing so good, I need her!_ “Should I... Do you want me to...” One of his hands were doing some kind of gestures in the air, he had no idea what they were supposed to mean.

“No!” she said hurriedly. “I just... I can try it. It always seems fun when the asari do it.”

Now it was his turn to blink, confused.

“The asari?” There were flashes of naked asari passing by in his minds eye. All of them paying special attention to this specific turian beauty. The image turned the fire in his gut to an inferno and his body begged him to move his hips. Just a little friction, just a tad bit, please, something, anything?

“Strippers?” She shrugged and laid back down. “Can't grow up on Omega without seeing your share of them, now can you?”

“I guess not.” Were he supposed to just start back up again, or was the mood gone now? _Please, please, please don't be over!_

“Please, continue.” The turian woman tilted her pelvis, not two inches from his face, taking all the uncertainty with it.

Konstantin had to laugh now. It was so easy being with her. Even now, both of them naked on the bed in this awkward position, talking about strippers. She had a way about her, this woman, like nothing could make her blush. Like everything was normal. It made him relax. With his former partners there had been a pretense of what was polite. The ease with which they moved around the bed completely fake and easy to spot when they tried to be seductive and alluring. Or maybe his earlier lovers had just been prudes. This woman didn't fake it, it fit her like a second skin.

In any case there were other things to focus on right now. Like following the line separating the plate between her legs with both his thumbs. They shifted further apart under his administrations. The purr that had stopped so suddenly started up again, letting him know he was doing good. But when he added the tongue there couldn't be any doubt in his mind, she liked it. The way her dual tones voice squeaked in surprise and then moaned outright sent shivers down his body. It made parts of him twitch and rub against the soft fabric of the covers. So he did it again.

He felt the slow glide of her plates as they parted, much faster than before. Then his tongue lapped at soft tissue, blue folds that tasted spicy and metallic. It was a bit weird, to be honest, but Konstantin forced himself to look past that and concentrate on preparing her instead. It was made easier when her hips moved with his movements. The need in her body made obvious from the wetness he found in the warm depths of her. He wasted a passing second of hoping that the walls weren't too thin, because the sounds she was making were not child friendly. Not particularly loud really. Just very insistent, with how she drew her breath and uttered a loose ' _ah_ ' and ' _oh, spirits_ '. Her claws digging into the covers on both sides of her body, slowly ripping them apart.

“Inside...” she breathed, her hips still working with the rhythm of his tongue.

Mouth busy, Konstantin settled for moving one finger between the frills, searching and finding the entrance, pushing in slowly. He didn't know how turians looked on the inside. Tonight was a great adventure, of the best kind. Maybe he'd write that article about turian women after all. What he found were similar to humans, but her walls weren't all tight passage. There were grooves and peaks above and below that yielded when he pressed against them.

A sharp, high screech bounced against the walls of the small room when he massaged them.

“You liked that, huh?” he asked, a bit amused and looked up towards her face.

“Fuck, yes!” The metal framing of the bed whined then her talons closed around it above her head, her whole body pushed and writhed to gain more out of his finger.

Electrical currents swooshed around his body, his throat tensing and he moaned. The sight of her completely focused on the pleasure he gave her had his entire body throb. _Take her, take her, take her._ But he wanted to try one last thing.

Pressing against her roof her drew his finger slowly out of her. The ridges snapping back from beneath it and making her hips and thighs twitch each time. The taste of her grew as he filled her up with his tongue instead. He wiggled it, his nose buried in her deep blue creases and her hands flew down to grip the back of his head. He hummed, pleased with himself, and a shiver ran through her body.

He felt powerful, being able to transform this paranoid assassin into a pile of loose limbs. Like the power she held was temporarily transported over to him. It was such a rush, and he ground his hips down into the bedding as he clasped his hands over her hips and held her down as he licked her.

“ _Fuckingholyshit, oh spirits please!_ ” Her words turned into a litany of curses so vile Konstantin had never heard them before.

He kept at it, twisting the wet muscle inside of her, rubbing it around the ridges while he felt her claws digging into his scalp.

“Please,” she moaned desperately. “Please, I need you.” The movement around the peak grew quicker. “Stop! I- I'm... Oh, _shit_ , _stop_!” Strong fingers grabbed him on both sides of his head and pushed him away.

The grin grew on Konstantin's lips when he saw her, lying there, gasping for breath, her eyes halfway closed, watching him, filled with lust. But when he sat up she lunged at him, hitting him in the chest and forced him down onto his back. A hand grabbed tight around his throat, blocking his airways and her warm body pressed into him. Her wetness grounded up over him, the soft tissue stroking his hardness. With his heart picking up speed the pulsing in his ears grew. He was stuck against the mattress, unable to breathe and lost to her every whim. It was even better than he would have dared to hope.

Thankfully her whims involved catching his head up with her folds, pushing down and making him slide into her. The lack of air just started to make black spots dance in front of his eyes as he penetrated her. She eased up on the grip and he drew in a greedy breath, the world coming back to him in full force. It was overpowering. The feeling of her warmth enveloping him. Her rough plates against his hips. Her tongue as it traveled over his neck and the feeling of teeth against the thin skin there.

She moved up and down him desperately. Each time he slid deeper into her she growled in his ear. Her movements were pure need and he got swept up in the passion. His hands pulling her towards him, pushing her to touch just that spot on him. Stroking and pinching her waist. Teeth scraping against the softer hide on her neck. Konstantin was only half aware of how he was grunting again and again as his hips met her halfway.

When she sat up, resting her hands on his chest and started grinding down on him, he all but lost it. He was so deep and the back and forth motion had him rubbing against something profound inside of her. She threw her head back and called out, her talons digging into his skin, piercing it and the pain down his front mingled with the rushing pleasure. It was completely impossible to not shift his feet around to get leverage to buck up into her. Her back arched and she called out again, totally beyond any coherent words.

Rough plating and soft hide squirmed under his fingers when he grabbed her thighs hard, just beside her hips and pushed her down onto him with the rhythm with his thrusts. Groaning as he felt the edge draw closer. He had to get there, _please let me get there._ One, two, three more deep pushes and his body tensed so hard he thought he would black out.

“ _Holy shit, oh god, yes!_ ” Konstantin threw his head back and bucked erratically up into her. Feeling how he exploded inside her tights softness.

A high pitched screech pierced his ears, and as he felt himself slowly shift down from the white cloud up above that had his skin buzzing, a heavy weight dropped down on him.

The next couple of minutes consisted of two bodies intertwined in each other as they breathed heavily, trying to catch their breaths. Konstantin couldn't wipe the satisfied grin off his face. Not even when she lifted her head from his shoulder and gave him a teasing look. He laughed softly, and kissed her. He felt so relaxed and happy. He never wanted to leave this bed, and he'd be damned if he let her out of his arms, like, ever.

“So that was fun,” she said and rolled off him, eliciting a whine when he slipped out of her, his nerves on total overload.

Konstantin moved to his side and pulled her tight against him..

“It was.” He let out a deep breath. “Wow.”

“You're welcome.” Her mandibles flared as she turned her head and looked at him.

He grinned back.

“Right back at you.”

A little later they both got up to clean off their escapade before returning to bed. Legs were apparently not for walking any more, he decided, as he crawled up next to her and pulled the covers over them. He was exhausted.

Two seconds later he was halfway asleep. Content in feeling her solid form slowly breathing in his arms, pressed to his chest.

“My name's Sola Merkasia.” He almost didn't hear the muffled mumble against his skin.

But it warmed him from his soul out through his body. She had given him _her name_. This little bit of trust from this mysterious person meant more to him than he could express in words. He simply held her, happy and content, and just before he drifted off to sleep it occurred to him that he had heard that name somewhere before.

 


	5. Revelations

They left the station early the next morning. It was easy to jump on a shuttle and head out into the unknown. Konstantin was fairly sure it was just his imaginings, but there was an excitement in the air around the dock as they joined the other passengers in boarding the small ship. It had always been this way for him. He always felt especially buzzed whenever he was traveling. It was like a drug, the anticipation. When he sat foot on the vessel he knew that anything could happen. They could end up on the dark side of Monte's seventh moon, sharing a drink with some unknown gracious host. Or maybe join a caravan over the widespread planes on Toskangar. You never knew.

His newly acquired traveling companion didn't seem as excited about the change as he was. With half closed eyes she shifted next to him, answering him as if she was running on autopilot, a duffel bag slung over one shoulder. Konstantin caught her yawning more than once. But he couldn't be tired. Not when the world lay before him, ready to be explored, and with some luck, written about.

When they reached their cabin it was already housing someone. A large dark blue krogan lay on one of the cots, snoring for all he was worth. The trip would take three days, taking them to a spaceport where they would have to change shuttle and spend another two before they reached their destination. Konstantin looked forward to chatting with the different passengers. But this particular passenger could give them some trouble if they decided to sleep during the same hours.

The cabin was small, containing only four beds, two of them resting on heavy metal beams from the wall above the others. The cramped middle isle made Konstantin wonder how the krogan managed to wedge himself in here at all.

The turian woman slumped down on the opposite side of their roommate. Nestling an arm around her shoulders and feeling the warmth spread in his chest when she rested her head against him he joined her.

“So Sola, huh?” he murmured, not to wake the bear that slept. They hadn't really had a chance to discuss her admission the night before. Their morning consisting of gulping down some breakfast and then being off.

“Yeah,” she smiled and nuzzled his neck affectionately.

“Does that mean I'm officially off the hit list?” It was mostly in jest he said it, but he couldn't help but wonder if this held some deeper meaning for her.

She snorted.

“You're safe.”

When Sola didn't continue he let the subject rest. He knew he couldn't push her or she'd shut him out. It was a delicate walk on a tightrope, gaining her trust, but he felt it would be worth it in the end.

While his friend bunched up under the covers in one of the bunks he drifted out to the mess. It was more like a common area really. A few old games, a holoscreen, a sofa and a few tables. Everything with that second hand, grunged up look things got when it was used by hundreds of people. They served food in a small kitchen, even though you had to pay through the nose for it. Most passengers brought their own, either eating it cold or, on longer trips, heating it up in the common kitchen.

Konstantin ended up spending most of the morning talking with an asari maiden. She had a few interesting stories to tell, and the traveling author paid her in kind. It wasn't until early midday when Sola finally decided to join them. They ate in a shifting company, people coming and going around them. Later in the evening someone whipped out a deck of cards and they sat down together with four others to make the hours before bedtime go faster.

“Truth be told, I'm kind of glad to be off the station,” a salarian with creamy white skin and shifting eyes told them.

“How's so?” the female batarian next to him asked as she discarded four cards onto the pile in the center of the table.

“I was living in the same district as Pass Cerozy,” he answered and shuffled the deck once before continuing. “They found him dead this morning.”

“What?” Konstantin almost jumped in his seat.

“Yeah.” Nervously the alien laughed. “He had fallen asleep and apparently simply not woken up. Good riddance to bad trash, I say, but since he was head of security in the area the whole district is of course a mess now. The Sisters moved in to claim the territory...”

He kept talking, but Konstantin didn't hear any more of it. Somehow the presence of Sola next to him doubled. It was like he could feel her even if he didn't look. Glancing at her she flicked her mandibles in a simple smile, the same smile she had given him all day. She didn't seem nervous or jumpy or in any way like the news of a certain high standing elcor that served them dinner the night before had died affected her in any way. She just played a card and continued listening to the salarian prattle on about how his brother now had to move, and all the troubles in finding a good apartment on the seedy station.

It wasn't that he didn't know what she did. He had the image of the leader of the gang that had hunted him two nights past fresh in mind, thank you very much. Maybe talking to her and seeing how her eyes now glittered with juvenile sparks as she once again folded her cards and lost the round had made him momentarily forget. Being on the shuttle from one space to the next had always felt like no-mans-land to him. A place were everyone had an anonymous face. Whatever they worked with, or whoever they knew, once they stepped foot outside the hull didn't matter. They all had to live under the same roof for a time. They all hovered in the space above their life while they did, like a pause of nothing between two breaths.

The news the salarian brought shoved Konstantin uncomfortably back down to hard ground.

“Human!” the batarian woman bellowed and woke him up from his inner reverie. “You going to play or what?”

Konstantin blinked, confused, down on his cards. He couldn't bind the different painted shapes together to make any sense of the game at the moment.

“No,” he said and threw them all away. “I... I need to... Yeah...”

He rose from his seat and walked away with his head still spinning with thoughts, making it all the way back to their, currently, empty cabin. It was a relief to sit down and run his fingers through his hair.

Had Sola killed him? Or was it the other guy, the turian with the stripes, that had ended the crime lord's life? Did it matter? Why had she come with him to the dinner anyway? Was that her real reason? Did she care about him at all?

The door swooshed open, two steps against the metal floor and then it closed again.

“Konstantin?” He didn't look at her until she reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder. “You okay?”

Wetting his lips, his mouth suddenly dry, he searched for a way to answer that.

“Yeah, sure...” he mumbled as he scoured her face. It looked just as creamy pale and beautiful as this morning. Those dark, deep eyes he felt holding so much more than she ever spoke, looking at him with light worry. “I just needed some air.”

Sola sat down next to him on the cot, but remained quiet, the question hanging in the air. After a short period of tense silence he had to grab it and give it form.

“Did you kill him?” he asked, his voice low. It was just one of those questions you had to whisper.

It took the turian a while before she opened her mouth.

“Don't go there,” she said, her voice carefully restrained.

“Why not?” he had to know.

“Because you won't like what you find.” She rose from her seat beside him and paced a few steps in the limited space, knitting her fingers together in the back of her neck, avoiding looking at him.

“I don't care!” suddenly Konstantin was angry. She was so mysterious all the time, hinting at the answers but never giving in to any of his questions. Couldn't she just be honest like a normal decent being? He glared up at her.

“But _I_ do!” she exclaimed heatedly and pointed at herself, returning in kind with dark, stormy eyes. “You don't want to know the details of my work. It would break you down into tiny pieces. That's why I didn't think _this_...” she gestured between them. “... was a good idea. You wouldn't survive one day in my world.”

“How would you know!” he responded, offended. “You don't know me!”

“Yes, I do!” she retorted and crossed her arms in front of her chest defensively. “I've seen it before. People like you being dragged down into the dirt and destroyed. You're...” She hesitated. The poisonous tone fading and her arms dropped to her sides again with a sigh. “You're kind. A gentle soul. I can't... I don't want to see your optimism about people die.” She hung her head and picked at one finger with a talon nervously, as if she was embarrassed by her own words. “Not if I can stop it.” She was mumbling now, and wouldn't look at him.

The fight went out of him and Konstantin took to his feet and grabbed both of her upper arms gently. Squeezing them reassuringly before sliding his hands down to hers. He disentangled her fingers and twined his own into them. She cared, and was scared for him. It was a guilty relief to hear.

With a deep sigh he rocked forward on his heels and nudged his forehead against hers for a second.

“I'm sorry,” he mumbled, searching for her eyes. “I just... I want to know you.” There they were. Dark pools on a worried face.

Her mandibles fluttered softly in a weak sardonic smile.

“I'm not a very nice person to know,” she said and turned her face down again.

“Hey...” Konstantin lifted one hand and put a knuckle under her chin, lifting it up to meet his eyes. “I happen to think that you're pretty sweet.” He tried a warm smile. She didn't look convinced. “And if you really don't... I mean... Can't you just... change career? If you don't like it, I mean.”

She scoffed at that.

“Sure, change career, mhm...” Sola didn't sound very serious.

The ironic undertone she had cut into Konstantin and he had to wrap his arms around her and hold her tight. He couldn't understand how she thought so little of herself. From what he had seen she was a remarkably strong woman. Probably the strongest he had ever met.

“How about we get some sleep?” he offered after he felt her relax against him. “We've been up forever.”

Sola nodded and they prepared for the first night on the vessel. Before Konstantin had fallen down into the deep slumber he felt his covers being lifted and a warm body sliding in next to him on the narrow bed. He pulled the spiky turian close and breathed in her scent as she burrowed in against his chest.

“I just want to be close, for a little while,” she whispered in the darkened cabin.

“Sure,” he agreed without a second thought. It felt great to have her in his arms. “For as long as you need.”

The funny thing about secrets and the grains of sand they spread in a relationship, was that they tended to surface more than once. They lay just under the surface, constantly irritating you until you couldn't take it any longer.

Konstantin was all for solving a good mystery, but when he didn't get anywhere in a while he grew bored and frustrated. During the five days trip to the vacation facility he slipped questions into every day conversations.

“So, Sola Merkasia, huh?” he started on the second day of the trip. She had made such a big deal about knowing her name that he figured that was a good angle to start on. “Why does that name sound familiar?”

They were sharing a private meal in a corner of the common area.

“I don't know,” she said and glanced up at him from over her plate. “Why is it?”

“Sola's a common enough name among turians,” he mused. “But I don't think I know anyone else by the name of Merkasia.”

“I should hope not,” she gave a soft laugh and took a sip from her water glass.

“Why?” he wondered. She sounded as if he was lucky to not know anyone else by that name.

“We're not a family you much would like to have contact with. Or most people who value their life don't anyway.” She took a bite and swallowed before continuing, running her eyes up and down of what she could see of him, her face intrigued. “I'm not sure what you are yet, since you like to keep me around.”

That's when the last puzzle piece fell in place for Konstantin. She was born and raised on Omega. She killed people professionally. Her family was not to be trifled with. Big krogan thugs backed off when they saw her.

The utensils clattered down on his plate and for a moment he had to stare at her.

“You're Zenot Merkasia's daughter,” he breathed, trying and failing to wrap his head around the fact.

Sola's nose wrinkled at the mention of her father's name, like she didn't like to hear it.

“Yeah,” she admitted. “Took you long enough to figure it out.” She cut another piece of the big green vegetable she was eating.

“I don't exactly move in the crowds of drug dealers.” He blinked and shook himself to try to restart his brain. It had somehow overloaded during the last few seconds. “Not enough to recognize the markings of the big cartel leader's family anyway.”

“Fun fact.” The turian, wanted in most of terminus space, gestured with her knife in the air. “I don't actually share the same markings as my father.” She grinned and motioned to her face with the utensil. “I took my mother's. Pissed him off to no end too.” The grin grew wider and there was a spark of mischief in her eyes, like she was reminiscing about good memories past.

“Why would you do that?” He wouldn't have been surprised if his eyes were bulging by this point. That sounded like suicide.

Sola just shrugged and kept eating like it was nothing important or life threatening to make a crime lord mad.

“I was fourteen,” she said in an offhand way. “Young and rebellious, trying to gain some independence from my all controlling parent.”

Controlling parent? Suddenly Konstantin realized something.

“He ordered the death of Mr. Cerozy, didn't he?” He leaned in on his elbows and saw how his table companion suddenly froze stiff for a second.

“Yeah, yes, he did.” She avoided his gaze and stopped eating.

“Is that... how this works? He says someone has to die and you do it for him?” This seemed a delicate matter for her. Konstantin threaded lightly, his voice soft and low. Giving her every out to stop responding. As much as he wanted the answers he didn't like to push her into something she felt uncomfortable with.

“More or less.” Sola nodded slowly and glanced up at him. He wished he could read turian facial expressions better, he had no idea what to do with this one. There was so much in those deep dark eyes of hers he longed for her to tell him. Shared pain was halved pain after all, if only she would trust him.

Reaching out to grab her hand across the table the usually so stable shields she held cracked and he got a glimpse of a much older woman beneath. Someone who had seen too much. Maybe done too much.

Two heartbeats and then she shrugged, shaking her body and head to clear the vulnerable moment and her shields scrambled down into place again.

It was all but impossible to not look her up on the extranet after that revelation. What information he found was surprisingly scarce. He had only heard rumors about her father, the big crime king, his small empire surrounding a few systems around Omega. He was supposed to have his pinkie in most pies around the outlaw space, but no one had been able to pin anything solid on him, not even Aria. The people he couldn't dodge he bribed or got rid of.

There was another rumor that floated around in the same circles that he had a daughter who carried out his sentences. She was feared in her own right. The things she had done indescribable for someone with as simple a life as Konstantin. He could only guess what kind of retribution she had acted out in favor of her father. He remembered a series of murders on the Citadel a few years back. Details of the victims had been left out in the media reports. A fact that kind of speak for itself.

He was having a hard time reconcile these two turian women together. The carefully protective person he came to know. Who had made him breakfast to say she was sorry, and helped him, without asking for anything in return, from ending up on the wrong end of a gun when he went to a late night dinner party. To the ruthless and coldhearted assassin who made trained mercenaries back off and cover. The longer time went by the harder it was to see that side of her.

The fourth day of their trip they lay in her bed, entangled by their limbs. Him still warm and sweaty from the previous exertion. Sola was breathing hard in his ear and swallowed thickly to regain some moisture in her dry mouth. It had started when they saw the krogan they shared the cabin with trudge out into the common area to get some food. It was a pain to be this close to her every night and day and not be able to do something about the cravings in his body due to people being constantly around. That first night together had been mind blowing. Awakening urges in him he didn't even know he had. His control had been slowly deteriorating during the last days, and now when he finally saw a chance to be alone with her he grabbed her hand and dragged her into their shared space.

It had been a wild struggle of getting their clothes off and touching each other as much as they possibly could. Earlier nights had supplied subdued kissing and soft caresses. But every time it had started to flame between them they had been interrupted. This time the pace was not slow. It was gasps and frantic pulling and when he finally got to push inside her he thought he was going to die it felt so good.

In any other situation he would probably have been embarrassed with how quickly he finished. But he made it up to her by crawling down her body and making her squirm until she screamed his name. It wasn't perfect, but it was an outlet they both seemed to be needing.

Now he held her tight and slowly brushed his lips against her forehead. Konstantin was warm and relaxed and she smelled wonderful in the aftermath of the quick rumble. The space surrounding them felt safe enough for him to voice another one of his questions.

“Do you enjoy what you do?”

The small laugh she let out tickled his neck.

“I thought we both did,” she said and he felt her mandibles flare in a grin.

He chuckled.

“No, I mean... What you do.” And in an even lower voice. “Kill people.”

Sola's body tensed for a second before she drew a deep breath and let it out in a long sigh. Her coarse fingers played on his soft chest.

“I guess,” her voice vague. “I haven't given it much thought, to be honest.”

He found that hard to believe. Confident in their relation, he pressed.

“You must have, I mean... you end lives.”

“That's not all I do.” Sola pushed him away from her so she could look up at him. She seemed irritated. “Most of my work is surveillance, information gathering. Just because no one ever notices doesn't mean it ain't true.”

“But... Haven't you ever wanted a normal life?” _Great work, Konstantin, you've made her upset and completely ruined the mood. Oh well, can just as well run with it then._

“What is normal anyway?” she argued. “What you do? Travel around the galaxy looking for something to write about?”

“But...” he started, a bit sad she seemed to think so little of his job.

“No!” she interrupted him and rose up to her knees, looking down at him. “You don't get to decide what's normal. I'm great at what I do, one of the best.” Her dual voice had started to flang so much even he could hear it. Why did she get so upset by this anyway? It was just a simple question.

“Okay, okay, I'm sorry. I was just curious.” And because he couldn't keep his mouth shut, he added: “But you have to admit it's a bit screwed up.”

Three fingered hands curled together hard before releasing and repeating the pattern. Konsantin was suddenly very aware of how little clothing he had on to shield from sharp talons in this vulnerable position. Pale mandibles flared sharply before pulling in tight against her face. She seemed to be on the verge of loosing control. But before he had a chance to back off and retreat she said with a disturbingly even voice:

“I've never known anything else.” Too many emotions flickered past her eyes for him to catalog. “I was shaped into a tool for my father to use from the day I could walk. I sold my first drugs when I was six. I tortured my first captive when I was ten. I killed my first victim when I was thirteen. So don't you fucking come here and tell me I should try to better myself. You don't get to decide what is 'normal'.” Sola jumped gracefully down from the bed, pulled on a pair of pants and her tunic before Konstantin even had a chance to melt what she had said.

“No, wait,” he blurted out when she opened the door. He had sat up and reached out for her without even noticing it.

The dark eyes she turned on him shilled him all the way to the bone, and suddenly he didn't have as hard a time to reconcile the two women.

“ _Don't_ follow me,” she sneered and were gone in a swish of the door.

Sola didn't show up until they were scheduled to dock to the luxury station the next evening. It had plagued him, what she had said. He hadn't known about her early years, how could he? It wasn't fair to be so cross with him, and yet he couldn't blame her for being upset. It was beyond him, to imagine what it must have been like, growing up with those parents. Pushing her into a life of crime and death.

Konstantin had grown up on a peaceful planet together with his family. Gone to school with all the other kids in the neighborhood and been given the privilege to choose his own path. He had parents who loved him, friends he could trust and a safe bed to come home to every night. It was hard for him to realize not everyone had had that.

Now he was afraid he had lost her with his ignorance. But her reaction had been so sharp, he had to wonder if something else lay beneath it. If maybe it wasn't just his questions that spurred her to lash out at him. Would he get the chance to find out? To be given the opportunity to say he was sorry and make things right?

He hadn't been sure of that before the airlock closed around him and a dozen other passengers. Someone made their way up behind him and he started when he felt her cold hand sneak into his own. Turning his head to the left she gave a weak flutter of her mandibles, her eyes unsure.

Konstantin was just so happy she was still coming with him he didn't know what to say. He didn't have a chance too figure it out before the door in front of them opened and people started to move around, pushing to get off the shuttle.

 


End file.
